About to jump!

Saturday my dad and I took a trip up to Wilsonville and photographed frogs. Our goal was to get a shot of a frog jumping for a damselfly. After watching this frog sit there in the water for 15 minutes and not jumping after these tasty morsals that landed 12 inches away, we moved on. We found a few others, but they were just as inactive.

Realizing our goal was very lofty, we changed it. "It doesn't mater why they are jumping, we just want to see them jump," my dad said. He got some rocks and I positioned myself. I result? Well, if it had worked you would be looking at a jumping frog shot instead of a sitting frog shot. About 1 out of 3 rocks caused the frog to swim a bit. This is less than exciting on film to say the least.

I like this shot because it best captures the frustration of the moment. "Just jump you stupid frog!" should be the title. Maybe I'm not cut out to be a nature photographer. Or, maybe 90+ degree heat had something to do with it. I don't know but, if someone wanted to pay me to get the ideal 'frog jumping after food' shot, I would tell them it would take a week plus about $10,000 in equipment. You could rent the equipment for less than $1000 for a week, so that would help, but still. My camera's burst mode is way too short. To get the shot you would need to anticipate the frogs movement and start bursting. About 1 out of 10 times you anticipate movement he might actually move. And if your burst mode is fast enough and you have a fast long lens, you might just be able to do it. A Canon 1Ds with a 70-200mm F2.8/L IS lens would be ideal. But, again, $10K is a bit much for a frog. I'll be happy with the shots I got.

I was tempted to make this "frog week" and post frog shots all week, but I thought that might drive some people crazy. And I can't wait until next week to post a couple shots of my girls. I got some good ones this weekend.